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The power and the need to create, over and beyond reproduction, is native in both women and men. Where the gifted among women (and men) have remained mute, or have never attained full capacity, it is because of circumstances, inner or outer, which oppose the needs of creation.

— Tillie Olsen Silences (1978)

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More quotes by Tillie Olsen

Sad is the country that requires women's studies, black and ethnic studies.

Kay Bonetti in 1986 article included in Conversations with Grace Paley (1997)

She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.

"It is a long baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion than to live untouched."

Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

"But there is more – to rebel against what will not let life be.”

Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tillie Olsen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.